This blog has been established for the 2015 Veterans for Peace National Conventiion, which is taking place in San Diego, 5-9 August. For 4 years VFP has ignored the suffering in Syria or worst. This is a temporary blog with posts from various sources in the hope of educating Veterans for Peace members about Syria.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Days after the U.S. and Turkey announced a breakthrough deal to fight together against the Islamic State, U.S. officials are insisting that -- contrary to reports -- there are definitely no U.S. plans for a "safe zone" inside Syria. In fact, there really is no "zone," and there is no plan to keep the area "safe."

This confusion is a microcosm of the disorganized U.S. approach to the Islamic State threat since last summer. Each incremental escalation into which the U.S. gets dragged in Syria seems poorly thought out and even more poorly explained. Until the Barack Obama administration can reconcile the different objectives among the members of its anti-Islamic-State coalition, the various partners will continue to work at cross-purposes. In this case, for the U.S., the Islamic State is the one and only priority; for Turkey, the imperative is protecting civilians from Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime and eventually forcing its exit.

For the last week, various U.S. and Turkish officials have been contradicting each other in public and private over whether or not the White House agreed to a safe zone inside Syria, something it has long resisted. Major U.S. newspapers even published makeshift maps showing what the anti-Islamic-State safe zone would cover. But in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, three senior administration officials made it clear that there are no U.S. plans for a safe zone, a no-fly zone, an air-exclusionary zone, a humanitarian buffer zone or any other protected zone of any kind.

"We're not out there staking out zones and doing some things that I know have been discussed in years past -- no-fly zones, safe zones. What we're trying to do is clear ISIL," a senior administration official said. "I think it's important not to confuse that with staking out these zones that you can identify with road signs and on big maps, and that's just not what's happening."

On Monday, a White House official told an audience in a closed-door meeting at the Middle East Institute in Washington the same thing about there being no safe zone inside Syria, according to two people who were inside the meeting. The Obama administration is sending a delegation back to Turkey next week to work on exactly what the new cooperation along the northern Syria border will look like, the official said.

The three senior administration officials talking to reporters Tuesday insisted that the operation will be limited to clearing Islamic State forces from a 68-mile stretch of the Turkey-Syria border. But there's no talk of protecting civilians, holding population areas, or making sure the area isn't attacked by Assad's air force, which continues to drop crude "barrel bombs" on civilian areas all over Northern Syria.

"What we're doing is we're going after ISIL wherever we find them up there in the north," one official said. “And now we have a kind of final stretch of border to work on that we're going to work cooperatively with the Turks on that. In terms of what exactly it looks like and how it will look and what the modalities are, that's what we have to work out with them.”

All this confusion started on July 23, when John Allen, the retired U.S. general in charge of the anti-jihadist effort, denied that an "air exclusion zone" inside Syria was even "part of the conversation" he conducted with the Turks that resulted in the new agreement, which will allow American planes to use Turkey's Incirlik Air Base to strike targets in Syria and Iraq. (Allen had been trying to negotiate a deal that would have included such a zone inside Syria since last year, but has repeatedly been stymied by the White House, which hates the idea.)

Yet two days later, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said this at a news conference: "When areas in northern Syria are cleared of the (ISIL) threat, the safe zones will be formed naturally. We have always defended safe zones and no-fly zones in Syria. People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe zones."

In the days that followed, articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere stated that the U.S. and Turkey had agreed to work on a safe zone inside Syria. Some reports included maps that showed the approximate reach of the area, where Syrian civilians would presumably be protected from Assad's forces. It took until Tuesday for the Obama administration to quash any notion to that effect.

The key difference between what the Obama administration is saying today versus the news reports earlier this week is not whether there is an area that the U.S. and Turkey will work to clear of Islamic State fighters. The dispute is whether that area will be "safe," especially from air attacks. The White House is wary of any plan that could put it in military conflict with the Assad regime, and has made no decision to protect opposition forces or civilians from its air assaults.

Former officials and Mideast experts noted this week that protecting the area from Assad's bombs was key to whether or not a safe zone would actually work. Frederic Hof, a former State Department Syria official, pointed out some of the holes in the still-murky U.S.-Turkey plan. "A marginal ground combat component is one problem faced by the coalition. Another is Assad regime aerial operations. They are major arrows in the quiver of ISIL," wrote Hof. "So although recent developments are positive, they can be potentially decisive only to the extent they transcend what's being reported: specifically in the category of protecting civilians."

In addition to tamping speculation about safe zones, the three senior administration officials said Tuesday that no U.S. or Turkish troops would be used to clear the border area of jihadists. "Moderate opposition forces" would do the job. They did not specify which opposition forces would be used, only that they would have to be agreed on by both Washington and Ankara.

That eliminates the possibility of using Kurdish forces, the most effective anti-Islamic-State troops in the region, because the Turks would veto the idea. For several days Turkey has been bombing forces of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which it considers a terrorist group. There were some allegations that it struck Syrian Kurdish forces as well. Administration officials defended the bombings on Tuesday, saying that the PKK started the latest round of violence.

As for the Free Syrian Army, the U.S. largely abandoned most of its brigades in northern Syria late last year, after they suffered heavy losses to other rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. The remaining forces are busy fighting for their lives in and around Aleppo. It's unlikely that they would be able to hold the Turkish border without a lot more assistance.

Another group that won't be able to fill is void are the recruits from the Pentagon's $500 million "train and equip" program. After huge delays caused by vetting problems and organizational incompetence, the program has produced only 60 trained fighters. They have been embedded with Free Syrian Army groups far from the Turkish border.

The U.S. and Turkey still haven't answered the key questions about their new anti-jihadist area, including how big it will be, who will man it, or what will happen if Assad's forces attack. Officials say the White House is trying to figure all of that now. If the past is any guide, the U.S. will likely continue its singular focus on defeating the Islamic State and decline to confront Assad or protect civilians. The Turks know that -- so, unfortunately, should those who have spent the last few days talking about "safe zones" inside Syria.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Written by Andy Berman, 25 May 2015, republished with permission. Andy Berman is a member of VFP Chapter 27 in Minneapolis, MN and the Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria [CISPOS]. Earlier he was in the US Peace Corps [1967-69], the US Army [1971-73], a telecommunications engineer and Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories. He became a Vietnam war resister and has been a solidarity and peace activist since then. He blogs at andyberman.blogspot.com.A former VFP board member writes:

No doubt Assad is a scumbag and a murderer. But those against him (Al Nusra and ISIS) are too. So why do you keep harping on this? What is it you think VFP should do about this? In my view we need to get the US the hell out of there, since US bombing only fuels the fire. Every day you harp on this, and it gets tiresome.
Peace,

Andy responds:

Thanks for your comments and questions. You posed them very civilly and I therefore should respond to you. There have been more than a few extremely nasty insults directed my way in this vfp-all forum and in personal emails. Those I ignore (and I have the authors emails automatically sent to my spam folder). But civil discourse is definitely worthwhile. I appreciate your effort.

So here’s my response or all your concerns. It’s a bit long, but the situation in Syria is complex. Please give this serious consideration.

Thanks for saying that Assad is a “scumbag and murderer.” Several who post on vfp-all are overt supporters of the fascist dictator. We see a lot of forwarded posts here from a group called the “Syria Solidarity Network”. That group explicitly supports the scumbag-murderer. You can see that easily at their website. At the recent UNAC conference, which our vice-president reported so positively on, there were several speakers from groups that openly support the scumbag-murderer, including the Syrian-American Forum, ANSWER, IAC, FRSO.org and others. Some of these folks have travelled to Syria to endorse the fraudulent elections last year or otherwise try to legitimize Assad. You are right. Assad is a tyrannical bastard. VFP should be clear about that. Code Pink has denounced Assad’s war crimes. We should too. We do not have to choose between Assad and US Imperialism.

I am sorry to read that you find my posts about Syria “tiresome.” They are intended to give fellow VFPers reliable news reports and analysis that encourages them to rethink, to speak out and to take action to help stop this horrible war. What I find truly tiresome in vfp-all are the repetitious rants and reposts from sensationalist and conspiracy websites. And tiresome too is the knowledge that every single day barrel bombs are being dropped in Syria while so many of my antiwar friends in the US remain silent.

I am glad that you recognize that Assad is a pig, but it is also clear that your understanding is not a universal sentiment in VFP, an organization I have been part of for many years. Hence I feel the need to post material that is intended to inform my fellow VFP members that we should be very clear about Assad’s brutality. While we reject US imperial ventures around the world, it is a serious error for peace activists to support in any way tyrants that find themselves in confrontation with the US: be they Assad, Saddam, Pol Pot, Qaddafi, or anyone else. We can and should speak out against US imperialism and brutal dictators as well.

I am sure you are familiar with US Left history, and are probably aware that there were indeed US “antiwar” activists who, in the name of opposing US militarism, backed Pol Pot in Cambodia. There are other historical precedents, including those in the antiwar movement who claimed in the early 1930s that stories of Hitler’s roundup of communists and Jews was just an excuse by FDR to build up the US Navy.

I know there are a great many decent and committed peace activists in VFP. I post politely without rancor so that they may see another side of the Syria story. The position that VFP now takes, seeing only US imperialism as the source of all conflict, and concerned only with the US role, is very misguided. It does not help further the cause of peace. We should be wiser and stop seeing the world only through our “Americanist” eyes.

You ask what should VFP do about Syria, the bloodiest war on the planet. Here’s what I think we should be doing: We often issue VFP Position Statements. We should issue a position statement that includes the following:

VFP urges the resumption of an international conference on Syria, including the parties to the conflict, Russia, Iran, and the US, and others, following the guidelines of the Geneva I protocol, which calls for a transitional government, a ceasefire, and a withdrawal of all foreign fighters.

VFP urges the United Nations Security Council to put enforcement mechanisms in place to support the existing Security Council resolutions for full access by international aid agencies bringing food and medical aid to all parts of Syria and its resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria including chlorine gas.

VFP urges the US government to conduct serious bilateral discussions with Russia and Iran seeking to find a negotiated end to the war. We recognize that the US still has considerable bargaining power with Russia over issues of NATO expansion and economic re-integration, and considerable common interest in stopping the spread of fanatical ideologies. We recognize that the pending multiparty nuclear agreement with Iran could lead to normalization of US-Iran relations, including a settlement of the Syrian war.

In addition to our criticism of US drone strikes that often kill innocents, VFP should openly criticize the use of barrel bombs, a true weapon of terror, that is now used by the Syrian government on a daily basis, slaughtering far more innocents than US drones.

We should be listening to Syrian voices! There are Syrians and Syrian-Americans in many US cities. They have a variety of viewpoints. Most are desperate for peace, and understand that reconciliation is not possible with Assad in control. The Syrian American Council is one place to hear and contact them. The Syrian American Medical Society is a great resource for information about the humanitarian crisis. And there are many internet sites, and facebook pages where different Syrian voices are heard. I will put some links at the end of this message. If you look at them you may be surprised that Syrians in general are much better informed about the America than Americans are informed about Syria!

Syria is the deadliest war on the planet. Why are we not listening to Syrian voices?

We would not think about taking a position on African-American matters without the input of African-Americans. Yet we basically take our Syria politics from American bloggers.

Another point that needs clarification is your understandable desire to get the “US the hell out of there because it only fuels the fire. “ I agree absolutely! The US track record of military intervention is not a good one. Indeed, the democratic, pluralistic part of the anti-Assad rebels has made it clear that the US bombing, supposedly aimed at ISIS, is in fact bolstering the Assad regime.

Yes, the US should get out of Syria. But so should Russia and Iran, by far the major suppliers of the weapons of war to Syria. And so should Saudi and Qatar and Hezbollah get out of Syria. VFP should not be shy about pointing the finger at all the war makers! A US pullout is a good idea, but alone it stops not one barrel bomb. It stops not one starvation siege.

The war in Syria raged for 3 years without significant US military aid to any of the parties. It would surely continue without US involvement. Far more than a “US pullout” is needed to stop this war. The war in Syria is now an international war. International action is required to end it. Our focus only on the US is lazy politics, and does not advance our sacred goal of ending war as an instrument of policy.

The world has changed a great deal since the Vietnam era when Dr. King courageously said that the US was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. Today there are other big purveyors of violence. Globalization is the new world order. Russia is no longer a socialist country. It is a capitalist oligarchy with military intervention in Ukraine and a base in Syria. Iran has 10,000 military advisors in Syria and is directing a proxy war in Yemen. Saudi bombs Yemen and invades Bahrain.

While our emphasis as an American veterans organization should be on US military intervention, to ignore completely the military aggression of other nations is hypocritical. It betrays our commitment as international citizens. In Syria today, US military intervention is not the main cause of the massive slaughter there of the last four years or the last 50 years of brutal dictatorship. To say so is a fantasy. It is a lie.

One more point needs clarification: The nature of the anti-Assad rebels. The uprising against Assad that began in 2011 was based on massive, non-violent, secular demonstrations of young people throughout Syria. It followed directly anti-dictator uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Its demands were for an end to the 50 years brutal dictatorship of the Assad family and the establishment of a democratic, pluralistic regime.

Tragically, Assad responded with extreme violence and some demonstrators moved to armed resistance. Defectors from Assad’s army founded the Free Syrian Army. And most tragically, outside powers, namely Saudi, Qatar, Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey and others have intervened massively with their own agendas, not the needs or desires of the Syrian people. A result has been the corruption of the uprising initial goals, and the rise of Islamic-based military groups in the anti-Assad forces, including Al-Nusra, the Islamic Front and several other groups, often not cooperating with each other. The democratic, secular groups, centered in the Free Syrian Army, are now only a part of the opposition.

In recent weeks, however, the anti-Assad groups have improved their military cooperation. Assad’s forces have been defeated in several key battles. The situation is now fluid. The Assad regime is far less stable.

Complicating all this is the rise of ISIS, coming into Syria from the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s disbanded Iraqi army, fueled by historic Sunni/Shia conflicts and funded by religious fanatics in the region. The conflict in Syria is now at least a three-way conflict, a bloody mess of historic proportions. There is no easy solution in sight. When the Assad regime does indeed fall, as it inevitably will, the aftermath is likely to be messy.

So what should we do? In VFP we should be watching this war closely, keeping ourselves informed and listening to all the parties to the conflict. We should stand by our basic principles, call for serious peace negotiations, condemn war crimes regardless of who commits them, and pressure our government to use diplomacy with Russia and Iran. We should be involved in fundraising for humanitarian aid to the millions of Syrians inside and outside the country who are suffering so greatly from this conflict.

Thanks for listening. Go in peace,

Andy Berman, US Army 1971-73, VFP Chapter 27

As promised are some links that can help folks get better informed about Syria:

The war in Syria is currently the bloodiest war on Earth, having caused over 230,000 deaths since the latest uprising began in March 2011. Half the population of Syria has been displaced from their homes.

Four million Syrians are now refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and other nations. The conditions of life in the refugee camps are at best difficult, with a sense of hopelessness for the future widespread among the refugees. There is often hostility from non-Syrians who see the refugees as rivals for jobs and services. The conditions of life for civilians who remain in Syria are often likewise dire, with major problems of access to food and decent shelter for much of the population. Gainful employment and access to education are likewise difficult, if not impossible for many. Syria, once known for its relatively educated population now suffers a major crisis in education.

The conflict in Syria is uniquely dangerous for all humanity because it is a multiparty conflict, involving both civil war in Syria and military intervention by numerous outside nations and entities. Weapons flow into the conflict from Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, the United States and other nations and entities. Large numbers of foreign fighters have joined the conflict from Iran, Lebanon (Hizbollah) and elsewhere. Alliances between different factions within the conflicting groups have shifted as the situations on the battlefields have changed.

Adding to the conflict has been the occupation of a significant part of Syrian territory by the fanatical “Islamic State”. The longstanding struggle of the Kurdish population in the middle east for autonomy has also added to the complexity of the struggle. This is truly a multiparty conflict in every sense of the word.

The Syrian war has involved the repeated use of outlawed chemical warfare and untargetable barrel bombs that claim the lives of far more civilians than combatants.

Indeed the civilian population of Syria is experiencing the worst effects of this war, including food shortages, limited or complete lack of access to medical care, the mass destruction of housing and basic infrastructure, and the breakdown of economic activity.

The war in Syria has aggravated relations between the United States and Russia and aggravated US relations with Iran, while a peaceful just settlement in Syria would go far towards resolving these ominous tensions.

The Syrian people have made remarkable positive contributions to the progress of humanity since ancient times despite many eras of occupation and tyranny. In this time of great duress, they deserve the attention and heartfelt concern of all humankind.

Part 2: The US Peace Movement and the role of Veterans for Peace:

The war in Syria, despite the horrific violence and suffering it is causing, has proved difficult for the US Peace Movement to effectively analyze and react to. The high degree of complexity in the Syrian conflict generally has baffled us and led us to simplistic views.

Well-versed in seeing US Imperialism as a primal cause of war and conflict in the modern world, we have often responded with the implied claim that ending US involvement in the Syrian conflict is the solution or the road to a just solution. And, as a corollary, it is often stated or implied that our responsibility as US peace activists ends there. The resulting “action” taken by most of the US peace movement has often been merely raising the banners “US Out!” and “End the US War against Syria”.

As the war continues now in its fourth year, with no viable resolution in sight, it is clear that this analysis is highly inaccurate and our response to the war in Syria has been insufficient and out of alignment with our principles as peacemakers.

Veterans for Peace is a leading organization in the US Peace Movement. We are a recognized NGO of the United Nations. We are widely respected in the general US Peace Movement and by peace activists abroad. As men and women who have served in the armed forces, we rightfully claim a special legitimacy when we speak and work on issues of war and peace. In the US peace movement our influence is great, often greater than we think. We are looked to for leadership and we have an obligation to provide leadership.

Our Mission Statement in Veterans for Peace commits us to “an obligation to heal the wounds of wars…and most significantly [to] working to end all wars.” By any honest measure, with regard to Syria, we have so far failed in both respects. We have not participated in any significant way in supporting the heroic efforts of humanitarian organizations to provide relief or heal the wounds of the Syrian people. We have not spoken out with a plan, a program or a valid demand to end the war in Syria.

Part 3: Proposals for action:

Given the situation outlined above, VFP must move to take action and work for peace and justice in Syria. The following proposals are offered as a suggested beginning

1) Veterans for Peace shall call upon all its members to stay closely informed about developments in the complex Syrian conflict by seeking out news and analysis from a variety of sources with different points of view, including those of Syrians and Syrian-Americans and the reports of United Nations agencies that monitor the conflict.

2) We will seek out ways to use our status as a recognized NGO at the United Nations to pressure widely for a just resolution to the conflict. The myriad of ways that we have and can use this status are well-documented on our web site. We call upon VFP members and chapters to review and incorporate those ideas in their work.

3) Veterans for Peace shall publically denounces the war crimes, including torture and massacres of civilians and prisoners, that are committed in the Syrian conflict and well-documented by UN agencies and other non-partisan authorities. VFP denounces these crimes regardless of which party has committed them.

4) Veterans for Peace urges all chapters and members to initiate or get involved in existing projects that provide medical, food and other humanitarian relief to Syrians inside Syria as well as those in refugee camps. They might include the following organizations which have done effective, non-partisan work in this area: Doctors Without Borders, Syrian-American Medical Society, White Helmets, American Refugee Committee, and Oxfam.

5) Veterans for Peace calls upon the international community and the United Nations to press for a resumption of the stalled Geneva peace conference on Syria

6) Veterans for Peace urges its members and chapters to speak out for a just and peaceful settlement to the war in Syria in all appropriate venues. We shall avoid simplistic slogans and analyses that ignore the deep complexities of this conflict.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Whereas Veterans for Peace has the explicit premier goal of abolishing war

Whereas the war in Syria is currently the bloodiest war on Earth, causing over 230,000 deaths since the latest uprising in March 2011

Whereas the conflict in Syria is uniquely dangerous for all humanity because it is a multiparty conflict, involving both civil war in Syria and military intervention by numerous outside nations and entities, and it has involved the repeated use of outlawed chemical weapons and untarget-able barrel bombs,

Whereas the war has created one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history, with 11 million Syrians, half the nation’s population, displaced from their homes. 4 million of them refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and other nations

Whereas the civilian population of Syria is experiencing the worst effects of this war, including food shortages, limited or complete lack of access to medical care, the mass destruction of housing and basic infrastructure, and the breakdown of economic activity

Whereas the origins of the 2011 uprising in Syria were guided by principles of non-violent protest, and the spirit of non-violence remains alive in Syria civil society despite Syria’s descent into horrific armed conflict

Whereas the war in Syria has aggravated relations between the United States and Russia and aggravated US relations with Iran, while a peaceful just settlement in Syria would go far towards resolving these ominous tensions,

Whereas the Syrian people have made remarkable positive contributions to the progress of humanity since ancient history despite many eras of occupation and tyranny, and therefore deserve the attention and concern of all humankind,

Be it therefore resolved that:

1) Veterans for Peace calls upon all its members to stay closely informed about developments in the complex Syrian conflict by seeking out news and analysis from a variety of sources with different points of view, including those of Syrians and Syrian-Americans and the reports of United Nations agencies that monitor the conflict.

2) Veterans for Peace denounces the war crimes and systemic torture committed in the Syrian conflict as well-documented by UN agencies and other non-partisan authorities. VFP calls out these crimes regardless of which party has committed them.

3) Veterans for Peace urges all chapters and members to initiate or get involved in existing projects that provide medical, food and other humanitarian relief to Syrians inside Syria as well as those in refugee camps. These include the White Helmets, the Syrian American Medical Society, Doctors without Borders, and the American Refugee Committee.

4) Veterans for Peace calls upon the International Community and the United Nations to press for a resumption of the stalled Geneva peace conference on Syria

5) Veterans for Peace urges its members and chapters to speak out for a just and peaceful settlement to the war in Syria, avoiding simplistic slogans and analyses that ignore the deep complexities of this conflict.